Durbers arrived in the hotel foyer at 7.45am in time to see the Males waving goodbye from the rear of a minibus taking them to the airport to catch flights to Luangwa Valley in the east of Zambia.
Later Durbers and Husseys and all drove to the traditional Mukuni Village several miles away along a dirt road.
On arrival they were greeted by a dignified and articulate young black lady who introduced herself and then gave a brief tour of the village whilst explaining the structure and history of the Leya tribe and the role of the Chief. One interesting point made was that if the Chief is unable or unwilling to undertake his duties to the satisfaction of the tribe he can be poisoned. We agreed that some of these ancient traditions should be applied in the west.
The tour ended in an enclosure packed around the perimeter with curio sellers. These each had about a square yard of space to display their carvings and each had a standard patter which began with. 'My name is ...., welcome to my shop' and then extended the hand to be shaken whilst asking the buyers name. Although not agressive, they were persistent and this became wearing after a time especially as there were so many that it would have taken hours to complete a conversation with each.
This was unfortunate as the curios were good quality - almost as good as the ones by the Falls - and the sales patter often did them more harm than good. However, we bought several items before breaking off and starting back.
The population of the village is about 7,000 and we noticed that many seemed ill. Later we discovered that 16% have AIDS; malaria and other diseases are also rife. An Englishwoman from Warwickshire has started a charity to improve hygene, education and and to improve the earning power of the tribe. An interesting but sad interlude.
We drove back into Livingstone, stopping to visit a large baobab by the side of the road.
Pictures below show a curio stall and the big baobab tree.
A good lunch at the Ocean Basket restaurant; as the name implies the menu is mainly fish but they had a great range including seafish flown up from South Africa.
We tried hake, dorado and locally caught bream - all delicious.
By now we were thinking about our flight to Lusaka scheduled to leave at 4pm so we headed back to the Sun and handed the car back to the owner. A last quick visit to the Falls and then we got into the minibus for the airport.
I suspect that we will be back.
Photos below - last shot of zebras in the hotel grounds, Dave and Sue before handing back the car, Dave and Rob in the Zambezi Sun reception.
We were scheduled to fly Zambia Airways to Lusaka at 4pm so we arrived at 2.45 and checked in our bags and got boarding cards. There was no sign of a plane and we were eventually told that we would not be leaving before 6.30pm. There is nothing to see and even less to do at Livingstone Airport. We walked the small hall, read cover to cover, the two papers that were available and tried to doze.
To add to our woes the bore from the hotel had arrived and we were faced with the possibility of over two hours of being talked at but fortunately he decided to go back into town.
As dusk fell we heard the sound of a plane in the distance and gave a little cheer as it turned out to be ours and in the dusk we climed on board at 6.30pm for the hour's flight to Lusaka.
Pictures below show the situation at 4pm, the situation at 5pm and the plane taxiing to a halt.
It was after 8.30pm by the time we arrived at the Holiday Inn; too late for our planned trip into the city for an Indian meal. Instead we enjoyed the first class buffet including large steaks cooked to order by a Louis Armstrong lookalike before showering and going to bed. We were due to check out at 6am the following morning to catch a flight to Mfuwe.
No comments:
Post a Comment